The Students in Free Enterprise organization recently won first runner-up at the SIFE USA National Exposition, which was held in Minneapolis, Minn., May 10 through 12. The competition was composed of top colleges that qualified to participate in front of 20 to 25 prestigious companies and their CEOs.

SIFE is an international organization that helps make differences globally and in the local community. The organization uses basic principles to first impact the local community and later the global community.

The UA program is composed of about 25 members who create and launch new programs. Every program has a team, its own coordinator, leaders and members, Cole Moten, vice president of the UA SIFE team, said.

Members of UA SIFE presentation team said that they overcame obstacles to make it to nationals because of the recent tornado that devastated Tuscaloosa. Though the team thought at first that they wouldn’t be able to make it to nationals, UA SIFE finished at the top of the competition with the program’s saying “SIFE for Life.”

Cory Ferraez, senior and Project Committee Chairman, said the best part of the competition was speaking to vice presidents and CEOs of major companies who were looking to hire SIFE members.

UA SIFE has four projects: 6 Sides, Microfinance, the Green Team, and the ABC Project, Moten said.

The 6 Sides program, lead by Ferraez, helps local artists, entrepreneurs and students sell and promote their items on a web store. This was the first business created for UA SIFE, which helps funds initiatives. The program will soon become a non-profit organization in June. Money earned will be put back into the company or to fund SIFE and 6 Sides.

The ABC project was initiated at Brookwood Middle School to educate eighth-graders on business principles such as writing business emails and memos via web-blog.             Students also learned about Chinese culture by coordinating with a school in Hangzhou, China. Students from each school would send words and phrases to learn in each other’s language.

Gabriela Medina, a senior majoring in management, joined the SIFE team in January and has worked on to two different projects including Microfinance and the Green Project.

“The Microfinance Program is an organization that lends out between $25-$1000 loans to help people globally,” she said. “These small loans are intended to start up small businesses and help provide for poor families who pay back the money on small interest.”

Medina also helped on the Green Project, which initiates energy efficient programs.

This program has instituted recycling at the University of Alabama’s Business School and has provided recycling bins at the business buildings that once did not have them, she said.

The Green Project also partnered with ReLife, the first curbside recycling pick-up business in Northport, AL. Other endeavors of the Green Project included establishing a program at Huntington Place Elementary School that taught students the importance of recycling.

Through project initiatives, the UA SIFE program is making an impact globally and on the local community, members of the team said. Their hard work has placed them at the top of the competition. More great things are expected to come from this organization next year.